Yeh and as good a player Mata is.. he's not really strengthening our weaknesses. We need a CM and LB urgently, if United can splash that on Mata with Rooney/Januzaj/Kagawa all capable playing of the same position, then they can splash ?30m or whatever it would take for someone we desperately need in a CM position.
Plus Carrick out for roughly 3 weeks... we're near bare bones right now.
We tried for 2 LB of our required quality, one will cost 30m, the other isn't allowed to move.
We need a CM, LB, Wide/central high creativity/Rooney future proofing, CB,
We've ticked off one of those in the best way possible
We can hold off on the 2nd and 4th
The first, there isn't actually much scope when you consider the quality we need.
What Mata does do is a 4-2-3-1 where the 2 can be stable/hard working, while the 4 do the magic and full backs get forward for the width. Rooney and RVP are back to fitness, Mata means we can now not overwork them and hopefully push onto 4th. Then we can plough back into the market proper. But if you honestly thought we could fix every problem this window, you're being horribly unrealistic.